MAGIC—Memristor-Aided Logic

Memristors are passive components with a varying resistance that depends on the previous voltage applied across the device. While memristors are naturally used as memory, memristors can also be used for other applications, including logic circuits. In this brief, a memristor-only logic family, i.e., memristor-aided logic (MAGIC), is presented. In each MAGIC logic gate, memristors serve as an input with previously stored data, and an additional memristor serves as an output. The topology of a MAGIC nor gate is similar to the structure of a common memristor-based crossbar memory array. A MAGIC nor gate can therefore be placed within memory, providing opportunities for novel non-von Neumann computer architectures. Other MAGIC gates also exist (e.g., and, or, not, and nand) and are described in this brief.

I. Introduction

IN recent years, the concept of a memristor, originally proposed by Leon Chua in 1971, has generated renewed interest. In [1], Chua proposed a fourth fundamental component in addition to the three already well-known fundamental electronic components: resistor, capacitor, and inductor. In [13], Chua and Kang extended the theory of memristors to memristive systems. Memristors and memristive devices are two-terminal devices, where the resistance of the device is changed by the electrical current, as shown in Fig. 1. The resistance of the memristor is bounded by a minimum resistance and a maximum resistance . In this brief, for simplicity, the terms memristor and memristive device are used interchangeably [14]. Fig. 1.

Memristor symbol. The polarity of the memristor is represented by a thick black line. When current flows into the device (the upper arrow), the resistance of the device increases. When current flows out of the device (the lower arrow), the resistance of the device decreases.